Courting Danger
by Follow-The-Firefly
Summary: He was always courting danger, but he didn't think it would come back to haunt him. Rated T for character death. MattXMello oneshot.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note. **

**Hallo! It's Xero! I got this idea last night, but I couldn't finish it until about an hour ago. That being said, this is in Matt's POV, something I don't do that much. I didn't really remember the later stuff very well, so I went and looked it up, but I could only find the English dubbed anime. I'm sorry if some of the info is messed up! And now without further ado, let the deadly tale begin!**

I'm wait outside the Wyatt Hotel, just like he told me to. He knows that the Japanese Police Force is going to launch an attack on the hideout and he doesn't want me to get hurt. I had told him that I wasn't going to be of any use sitting around in a hotel, but he said that he couldn't live with himself if I had died.

It is going to be violent and both of us know it.

As we prepared for the attack, I helped Mello set bombs up at the entrances. Its all part of Mello's plan: lure them in, trap them, and eradicate them, taking himself down if he needs to. I'm not enthralled about that part, but Mello assured me that he would escape before things got too bad.

I can't believe all this is over a notebook! I mean, I know the Death Note has the power to kill people, but is it _really _worth all of the effort? We all know Kira wants the Death Note so he can create a "perfect world", but I think Mello just wants it so he can surpass Near.

I swear, it's as boring as hell to wait for something to happen. We don't know when the Task Force is going to attack and I can't stand sitting around while my boyfriend could get killed.

I hear an explosion from a mile away and I freeze, my eyes growing wide in terror. Was that…? Did Mello just…? Did he just blow up the hideout?

What the hell is going on?

Before I know it, I'm running down the street in the direction of the explosion, the sound of my footsteps thundering on the pavement. Mello can't be dead. There's no _way_ that he would die on me.

I can see the fire long before I reach the hideout. The smoke burns my eyes as I run towards the burning building. Great job, Matt. The _one_ day you're not wearing your goggles, the attack is launched.

Coughing, I try to stay hidden from the Police Force, even though they probably can't see me through all of the smoke the inferno is creating. As quietly as I can, I start to look around for Mello, hoping that he's still alive.

Then I see him and I realize what's happened.

He's lying on the ground, the detonator to the bomb close by. Pieces of what appear to have been a gas mask are scattered around him. The left side of his face is charred black; it's obvious that the skin was devoured by the fire caused from the explosion.

I shake him slightly, to see if he'll wake up. Then I realize that he'd probably be in agony if he was conscious, so I pick him up and take him back to my hotel room.

Let me tell you, it's _really_ hard to sneak someone into a hotel room and remain unnoticed. I can't let anyone see him because they'll automatically try to call for an ambulance. And then the Police Force would find out.

I needn't mention what would happen if the Task Force found Mello.

Once we're inside my room, I lay him down on the couch, trying to make sure that he doesn't wake up. I've seen how people react to getting burned as badly as this.

It's not a pretty sight.

I race into the bathroom for the first aid kit that's stored under the sink and bring up a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a couple bags of cotton balls. I'm not looking forward to doing this, but it has to be done if I don't want Mello's burn to get infected.

I douse a cotton ball in the colourless liquid before gently rubbing it on the black skin. God, it looks killer and I'm just trying to take away the dead skin. It takes a little while to get it all off of his face, since I have to be thorough and make sure that the burn is clean. Then I run some more hydrogen peroxide on it to make sure that the burn doesn't infected. I know I should put some alcohol on it, but it would definitely sting like hell. I'll wait until the burn gets a little better before I do that.

After putting some anti-septic, all I can do is to wait for him to wake up. I _hate_ waiting for something like this. I hate sitting around, feeling helpless, when I know that there's something I could be doing.

Mello's unconscious for quite a while: almost three days. I'm playing a video game on my PSP when I hear him. I figured that he would react like most burn patients would, scream bloody murder, so it's surprising to see him so calm. Well, relatively calm given the current situation.

"Where…am I?" he tries to ask.

"I wouldn't talk yet. The smoke probably damaged your lungs." I turn off the PSP and sit on the floor by his head. "In answer to your question, you are in my hotel room. You remember what happened, right?"

He nods slowly and his hand travels to his face before I stop him.

"Don't touch your face." I tell him.

Mello looks at me with a confused expression, wincing slightly from the pain that the burn has caused.

"You burned your face really badly, but I couldn't take you to the hospital. So I did what I could here." I explained. "You should take some Advil later. It's supposed to help with burns."

His blue-green eyes are on me for few more seconds before they find the ceiling. I know what's really bothering him.

He lost the Death Note. The whole attack had been a failure.

"It's okay, Mels." I tell him. "The Deputy Director had it and he probably died in the explosion."

Mello clearly wants to tell me something, but I shake my head and cut him off.

"You need to take it easy for a little bit." I say. "And you probably won't feel like eating chocolate for a while."

* * *

It's now about a month after the explosion at the hideout. Mello's burn is starting to look a little better, but it still shocks me to see the new wound on his face. It took him a few days to be able to speak again, which was no surprise since he was trapped in smoke for so long.

I return from grocery shopping to find Mello in the kitchen making lunch. I set the bag of food on the counter and walk over to the stove where I find a grilled cheese sandwich on fire.

"Holy shit, Mello!" I yell, surprised by the sight. "What are you doing?!"

"Making lunch." Mello responds. "Duh."

"Well, it doesn't need to be on fire!" I quickly fill a glass with water and throw it on the burnt food. "Why have you always had a thing with fire, Mello?"

"I like to watch it burn." Mello grins. "And it smells good, too."

"I don't think you would've said the same thing about the explosion." I tell him as I start to unload groceries.

"Probably not." Mello puts a box of cereal in a cupboard. "Too large a scale."

"Have you ever thought that maybe the fire isn't a good thing?" I ask him as I light up a cigarette.

"Says the one who just pulled out a lighter." Mello says.

"That's not the same and you know it." I tell him. "You're always courting danger, Mels."

"Oh yeah?" Mello puts a few packs of Hot Pockets in the freezer.

"Remember when we were in England and went on that field trip to the farm?" I ask him, taking a drag on my cigarette.

"It's kind of hard to forget that." Mello says.

"You deliberately climbed on top of the shed and jumped off." I tell him.

"Is that all you have?" Mello raises an eyebrow at me.

"When I first became your partner, you went out drag racing in the middle of the night." I remind him.

"But that was fun." Mello protests.

"And you got in that gunfight between Beck and Rod." I bring up another point.

He knows I have a point. I can see it in his eyes.

"But maybe I _like_ danger." Mello says as he wraps his arms around my waist.

"Why in the world would you like it?" I wonder.

"The thrill." He responds.

"I'm sure." I say. "But can you at least tone it down?"

"And why?" Mello wants to know.

"I don't want to see you get hurt again." I tell him, looking at the grotesque burn on his face.

"It could've been a lot worse and you know it." Mello releases me from his embrace.

"You could have _died_ if I hadn't found you." I look into his teal eyes.

"That would've been the price I'd pay for my actions." Mello says.

"Just…take it easy for a while, okay?" I ask. "For me?"

"I'll try." Mello says. "But I won't make any promises."

* * *

The next afternoon, I go out to the store and get some more ammo for our weapons. It's kind of pointless to have a gun and not carry ammo. So I return home, expecting to find Mello eating chocolate and watching some cop show on TV, but when I open the door, he's not there.

Walking inside, I check the bedroom and the bathroom for any sign of him. Nothing. None at all. Then I walk out to the kitchen and see a note in his chicken-scratch handwriting.

_Out for a bit. Be back soon. Mello._

Well, that explains it. It'd be nice to know where he is, but I guess he feels that he doesn't need to tell me everything.

I walk into the living room to put the ammo by our guns when I notice that Mello's weapon is missing. Frowning, I look in the bedroom, even though I was just there, but I don't see it. Finally, I come to the conclusion that he took it with him, which could mean only one thing.

Mello went to the SPK.

I deliberately told him _not_ to go. So what does he do? He goes to the SPK.

I thought he seemed to calm about it when we were talking about it last night. I know what he wants: his photograph that Near has. He can't have his picture fall into the wrong hands. Anyone could be Kira and they'd use that photograph to kill him. Well, as long as they knew his real name.

I can't really do anything but wait for him to get back, so I turn on the XBox and start playing video games. It's not long before I hear the door open and I find that Mello's back.

"That was quick." I say, making sure the anger is prevalent in my voice.

"What are you talking about?" Mello sets his gun on the table and grabs a bar of chocolate.

"Did you even go?" I ask, my eyes leaving the TV screen so I can look at him.

"I got stopped at security because I had a gun." Mello knows that I know that he tried to go to the SPK.

"Why did you go?" I demand.

"To get that picture." Mello sits on the couch next to me. "You know why."

"You were about to walk right into the SPK!" I exclaim. "Do you know how _stupid_ that was, Mello?"

"It was a necessary action." Mello says. "It had to be done."

"You know Kira wouldn't get it from Near." I pull out a cigarette and light it up.

"You never know." Mello shrugs. "I need to make sure that no one knows what I look like. Now that the Japanese police knows my real name, they have half of what Kira needs to kill me."

"This is insane." I take a drag on the cigarette. "Are you really after Kira or are you just trying to prove that you're better than Near?"

"We need to catch Kira, Matt." Mello's voice is full of seriousness. "I don't need to tell you what could happen if we don't and Kira gets free reign of the world."

"But you don't need to make such reckless decisions." I say. "You already got burned. Do you want to end up dead, too?"

"This is to make sure that I _don't_ die." Mello says fiercely.

"Really? Are you sure about that?" I take another drag and blow the smoke out through my teeth.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mello looks confused.

"Just forget it." I turn off the XBox and make my way into the kitchen. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do anymore."

"You're supposed to help me catch Kira." Mello says as he walks behind me.

"How can I do that when you keep doing stupid things like this that can get you killed?" I stare into his eyes. "If you'd walked in the SPK, Mello, they'd probably have shot you point-blank."

"Your point?" Mello breaks off a piece of chocolate.

"What good would you be if you were dead? You would have died for nothing." I tell him. "You'd let Kira win."

"There's no way in hell that I'm letting Kira win." Mello says firmly. "You should know that better than anyone."

"I'm not so sure from the way you're acting about this whole thing." I take a drag on the cigarette.

Mello sighs and says, "I know I've been acting really irrationally lately."

"I'll say." I mutter under my breath.

"But that's because I need to catch Kira. I won't rest until I see him dead. And maybe I _should_ take it down a notch." Mello says, lacing his fingers between mine. "But I can't stop for good."

"I know that." I assure him. "I just wish you'd stop doing the dangerous stuff."

"It's not easy." Mello tells me. "I like going fast."

"But there's something to be said for taking things slowly." I say.

"I know, I know." Mello says. "I will."

* * *

Everything's set. We have a plan to kidnap Takada. And fortunately, I'm going to be a part of it. There's always a chance to that this could fail. If Mello goes down, then I'm going down with him.

Tracing everything to Takada took a lot of work, let me tell you. It was very annoying to have to have Hal tell us everything. I wanted to go out and get the information myself, but Mello wouldn't let me.

My main purpose in this abduction is to create a distraction so Mello can kidnap Takada. I have a smoke bomb ready to throw that will create enough smoke so that Mello can abduct Takada without any problems.

"Let's hope this works." I say as I get in my car.

"It'll work." Mello assures me as he stands next to the driver's side door. "So good luck."

"You have the hard part." I smile. "I just create a diversion."

"And you get to drive fast." Mello gives me a quick kiss before getting on his motorcycle.

"I'll see you later, then." I say.

"Yeah." Mello nods.

I turn the key and start the engine before taking off down the street. I know it's dangerous to drive this fast, but I, like Mello, love some dangerous things.

I can't help but feel that something will go wrong with this. I don't know what it is, but something seems ominous. I just hope Mello doesn't do something that will get himself killed.

I reach the target right on time. Takada is about to walk into the building when I speed up and send my smoke bomb into the crowd of people before taking off again. I think that all is going according to plan until I hear the sirens behind me. The cops aren't going after Mello, since he should have kidnapped Takada by now.

They're going after me.

I lead them on a chase throughout the city before I'm boxed in with cop cars surrounding me. They get out and point their guns at me.

Guns don't scare me. I use guns all the time.

"These guys have been waiting for me." I say, leaning against the door.

I think about my options. I could pull out my gun and start shooting the cops, but then they'd start shooting me. I could remain in the car and wait. On the other hand, I could get out and try to negotiate, which I'm betting they won't want to do. But I do it anyway.

"Hey, when'd the police get such nice guns?" I ask as I step out of the car.

"Don't move!" one of the cops says.

"I guess you've figured out that I'm part of the scheme, too. Besides, you want to know from me where my accomplice has taken Takada to, right?" I say as I start to raise my hands. "You can't possibly fire at-"

That's when I feel the bullets pierce through my skin, ripping me apart. That's when I knew I made the wrong choice, the dangerous choice. That's when I knew it was over.

I fall against the hood of my car, bullets in nearly every inch of my body. This is the end. I'll never see Mello again because it's too late to save me. Not when I have this many holes in my body.

I'm always telling Mello not to do such dangerous things and I should have realized that I do plenty of them myself. Speeding, smoking, pretty much everything I do is dangerous. And I do most of them around Mello.

I guess I'm the one who courted danger, babe. I fell in love with you.

**Gah! this was so sad at the end! I hope it's not too bad.....and I hope they aren't too OOC. hell, I hope this isn't a failure of a oneshot. But let me know what you think. If you don't like it, at least tell me what I could do to fix it. and be nice, people. I will send back flames. thanks for reading.**


End file.
